LIN 5574 -Languages of the World
Assignment #5 - Word Order
OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT: YOU MAY USE ASSIGNMENT 5 TO REPLACE A
LOWER GRADE ON A PREVIOUS ASSIGNMENT. OTHERWISE, YOU MAY
IGNORE IT.
DUE MONDAY APRIL 8 2002
For the most part this assignment will concentrate on word order in
simple sentences. It will be concerned with the order of Subject, Verb, and
(Direct) Object, plus several other categories that also correlate with the order
of these elements. It is understood that you are dependent on the amount of
detail of the descriptions that you have available in answering these questions.
1. Simple Positive declarative sentences
Give the basic (or usual, or most natural. etc.)word order for:
a. intransitive sentences. i.e.. what is the order of subject and verb?
b. simple transitive sentences. i.e., what is the order of subject, verb. and
object?
c. ditransitive sentences, i.e.. what is the order of subject. verb, direct
object, and indirect object? Is the indirect object marked with a case marker?
with a preposition or postposition? by word order?
Indicate how free the word order is:
a. Is it primarily grammatically determined (as in English)? Give
examples to show your point.
b. Is it discourse determined (as in Russian)? Give examples to show
your point.
2. Yes-no questions
How are yes-no questions formed? Do they have the same word order as
declarative sentences? Give examples to show your point. E.g., in English
yes-no questions are formed in simple declarative sentences by placing an
auxiliary verb before the subject ('Sam can dance' vs. 'Can Sam dance?'). In
Japanese, yes-no questions are formed by adding a marker at the end of the
sentence ('Sam can dance, right?').
3. Question word questions
How are questions word questions formed? Do they have the same word
order as declarative sentences? Give examples to show your point. E.g., in
English, question word questions are formed by using an interrogative pronoun
(who, what, when, etc.) for the questioned element and placing it at the
beginning of the sentence; if any element except the subject is questioned, an
auxiliary verb appears before the subject ('Sam saw Sally' vs. 'Who did Sam
see?' vs. 'Who saw Sally'). In Japanese, the interrogative pronoun stays in the
place where the questioned element would be in a declarative sentence ('Sam
saw who?').
4. Correlation of adpositions and verb. object order
Does your language have prepositions or postpositions? Give examples,
If so.
In general, languages with the word order Verb-Object have prepositions
and languages with the word order Object-Verb have postpositions. Comment
on whether your language is consistent with this observation. Give examples
of this.
5. Other observations
You are free to add any other observations about word order in your
language that you find interesting.